We slept long today and planned to take this day easy. We headed to the city at 11 o’clock and started the day by eating a Beijing duck at a restaurant, which was specialiced on this. They carved the duck next to the table und you get some crispy skin pieces as a starter, which you dip in sugar before eating. Then you get the breast with pancakes, cucumber, and spring onion. Dipped in soy sauce and wrapped up, this was a delicious meal and very different from the duck in Europe.

Then we walked to a park, close to the center which was kind of an spontaneous choice. It was a big park with a lake and a couple of tempels. The weather was better than it looks on the pictures. The smog was spoiling view.

But we had a good time in the park. Walking slowly and finding pretty spots everywhere.

The park was not free, but this was a good thing. For just 10 yuan we got a more quiet area to walk in.

The white pagoda was in the center of the park, on a small island.

So much lotus growing here, really beautiful.

We spent the whole afternoon here. It was a relaxing day, as we wanted it.

When we started to get hungry again, we went to a very popular street were you could find all kinds of street food.

We had tried a lot of things here, naturally. Starting with something like very young yoghurt, going on with a funny deep fried potatoe spiral and a spicy Chinese bratwurst. Then deep fried chicken and my favorite this evening: a cheese cake, which was very different from what I am used to. Thin and fresh with a good milky taste. And we tried the infamous durian fruit in a fried version. This was the only thing I couldn’t eat so far. The taste reminded me of half-rotten onions.

Then we walked back and and went into a chaotic subway station. It was Friday evening after all. It took 15 minutes to buy a ticket this time, waiting in a long queue.

We picked up some beers on the way. I found it really funny: half of the beers on offer were Chinese (like the famous Qingdao beer, picture below) and the other half was German beers but only from brands I have never seen before (Or did anybody hear off “Schaumhof” beer?) I chose an Adlerbräu because of the label: “Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalts”, the big Reinheitsgebot reference and a German flag on a Bavarian beer. Turned out to be very smokey. The Qingdao one was better actually.

This was a very nice last day in Beijing. Tomorrow, we will take the train to Qingdao. It was an interesting time here with mostly good impressions. But I am looking forward to the next stop now, in a smaller city with better air quality.